I’d won that round.
Didn’t feel like it.
I was halfway down the corridor when my phone buzzed. Not the team line — my personal. Only a few people had the number.
Jay:
We’re heading out.
Jay:
Got a lead. Call you when we’re closer.
I stilled and cold settled into my chest.
Notalead.
Her.
I didn’t need to ask who they were talking about. Rhett had been vibrating with frustration since she vanished, Jay too quiet to be innocent. I knew that look in their eyes—restless, starved, on edge.
If they were heading to Wren?
That was a line they couldn’t uncross.
I called Jay. He didn’t answer.
Figures.Asshole.
The moment I hit the parking level, I cut across the west corridor, took the side stairs, and ducked out a door few knew was even open. The one that would give me a shot at catching them before they peeled off into the city or worse, off the grid.
It wasn’t just that it was reckless. Or selfish.
It was that Wren had made herself clear.
Don’t follow me. Don’t cross this line. Don’t ask.
She’d always been explicit about her boundaries.
Even now, when every part of me ached to find her, toseeher—to scent her and just know she was okay—I wasn’t going to disrespect what she’d so carefully protected. What she’d survived to maintain.
But the others…?
Rhett was a fucking wildfire on a good day. Jay could out-calculate most analysts mid-play, but the second emotion bled into logic, he was a blade looking for a target.
If they showed up at her door?
She’d never forgive it.
What was worse for me—yes, I would be selfish about this—she’d thinkIsent them.
That thought alone had my feet moving faster.
I pulled out my phone, hit Rhett’s name.
Straight to voicemail.
Goddamn it.
